


Three Days of Rain

by KoreFanFic



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-04 16:42:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20474252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KoreFanFic/pseuds/KoreFanFic
Summary: Asra POV.*Spoilers for the Arcana*(This is a reimaginaing non cannon version of the events leading to MC's Death. MC is under my MC's name Persi)Asra and Julian are working on a cure for the Red Plague as it quickly spreads across the city of Vesuvia. Count Lucio is growing desperate and he is demanding monstrous measures to find a cure for himself.





	Three Days of Rain

"We have to be getting close," Julian mutters from behind a stack of books behind me. I don't even glance up at him when I reply.  
"We are. We're just missing something." Both of us are feeling the strain of our own research tonight. The plague somehow seems to be getting worse across Vesuvia, more and more people are dying all over the city, faster than before. It wont be long before everyone is infected or dead.  
"But what?" Julian's hands fly up above his head and he lets out an exasperated sigh.  
Silence stretches out across the library, candle light and moonlight mix together along the shelves and shelves of books around us. An overwhelming feeling of hungry rolls over me and my stomach lets out a roar of a noise that bounces off the large, ceiling high windows above us. Julian peeks over his wall of books and raises an auburn eyebrow at me.  
"You haven't eaten today?" He questions, half scolding, half concerned.  
"I'll eat when I get back to the shop. I'm sure Persi saved me some dinner," I reply, trying not to think too hard about the smell of her cooking.  
Julian rolls his eyes and shakes his head, his dark red hair falling over his face, before ducking his head back down to read.  
"How is she coping at the clinic?" He asks casually.  
"As good as can be expected given the situation out there. She's putting on a brave face but it's getting to her. She's not built to deal with death," I answer him quietly, not looking up from the large medical journal in my hands.  
"That's understandable. She's a kind soul." I hear the sound of page turning slowly from where he's hiding.  
"You never should of given her that job," I suddenly retort, a small bubble of anger rising in my throat.  
"She wanted to help people." Another page turns as he speaks.  
"There's nothing she can do to help. All she's doing is holding peoples hands while they die at her feet. She shouldn't have to see so much death," I snap. "I told you not to let her work there."  
"What else was I supposed to do Asra?" He shouts, slamming his book on the table and knocking over some of the ones in front of him in the process. His eyes lock with mine and I can feel the irritation rolling off of him. "She was the only one who wanted to help them. Everyone else in this city is too damned scared to go outside, let alone to lend a hand to the sick and dying! You think I like being stuck in this castle, flicking through these dusty old books while people get shipped off to the Lazeret? While the people I have lived with, laughed with, drank with are thrown into wooden carts and taken to be turned to nothing but ash?" As he speaks he slowly rises until hes standing, leaning over his table, eyes bulging on the brink of tears. For someone who pretends not to care about anyone, he sure looks like he cares now.  
"You can't blame me for wanting to keep her safe. Do you not have anyone who you'd do anything to keep safe?" I watch as his face goes a faint shade of pink, before he breaks eye contact with me and throws himself back into his chair with a thud.  
"No." He replies shortly and goes back to his book. "And anyway, I needed someone to feed Brundle while I was in stuck in here," he mumbles.  
We sit in silence for an hour, only the sound of pages turning occasionally filling the night. It's gone midnight when the door to the library opens behind us, a small dark haired chamberlain peaks their head through the gap and clears their throat.  
"Excuse me?" They ask timidly, nervousness and a small amount of fear dancing through their eyes.  
I smile warmly at them, hoping to at least ease the nervousness. Nothing takes the fear out of any ones eyes anymore.  
"Yes?"  
"Count Lucio wishes you to see him in his chambers," They squeak.  
I nod in response before pulling myself up from the cushions on the floor.  
"Ilya? Shall we?" I hold my arm towards the door with a smile, but Juilian just groans and gets to his feet.  
"Let's get this over with," he grumbles, storming past me, his black boots echoing off the wooden floor.  
By the time we get into the hall, the chamberlain has scuttled off, no sign of them anywhere.  
"I swear, you'd think they were bloody ghosts," Julian mutters under his breath just loud enough for me to hear him.  
"Maybe they are," I tease him.  
He stops in his tracks, his eyes wide with panic.  
"Are you-"  
"I'm kidding, Ilya. Now come on let's go see what your best friend wants," I laugh, continuing my way down the hall.  
Julian follows behind me, mumbling something rude about me to himself.

When we reach Lucios private wing, we are met by a flustered looking Nadia. She's twisting her shawl in her hands, her eyes red from crying. Julian and I quicken our steps until we reach her.  
"Countess? What's wrong?" Julian reaches a hand out to console her but stops short of actually touching her. He never was good with other peoples emotions. Or his own for that matter.  
"He's gotten worse. Demanding a cure. He wont listen. He's- he's demanding they start testing a cure on- on-" She sobs through her words, tears rolling down her face.  
"On what?" Julian asks, his eyes focused over her shoulder, on Lucios bedroom door in the distance.  
"On living people! And none of the damned Courtiers aren't even trying to talk him out of it! I can't be a part of this!" She cries, before running past us and down the large staircase.  
I gape at Julian, open mouthed, dread filling my empty stomach, hunger no longer the pain I'm feeling.  
"He wouldn't?" I ask. Nadia had to of misheard him.  
"It's Lucio. I'm surprised it took him this long to demand we start sacrificing others to save his own ass," Julian says through clenched teeth. He doesn't look impressed.  
Without another word we head down the hall to the Counts room. We open the door before Lucios, grab a pair of long beaked masks, white doctors robes, black gloves and a bag of herbs each. Dressing in silence, I can feel the dread in my stomach rising to my throat. There's no way thats what he's about to ask us to do. He can't be THAT heartless.  
As we stand in the hall, fully prepared to enter his room, Julian sighs and turns to me.  
"When he asks us do to this, let me do the talking," He says firmly, his voice echoes from inside his mask.  
"I can tell him no myself," I fold my arms to express I'm serious.  
"No. Keep your mouth shut. You'll get us sent to the Colosseum," He snaps quietly, before reaching out to open the door. I jump forward and grab his wrist just before he reaches the handle.  
"Ilya. I'm not condoning this. We can't experiment on living people!" I whisper harshly.  
"I know you can't," He says softly before he pulls his hand from my grasp and pushes the door open.  
My vision is suddenly overpower by the colour red irradiating from the open room as Julian steps past me. We both quickly enter the room, closing the door behind us and are greeted by the sound of coughing. Not just any cough, dry, harsh, stomach retching coughing.  
Lucio sits in the middle of his obnoxiously large crimson four poster bed, sat in the middle of his red walled and red carpeted room, his skin shockingly pale in comparison to it all. Or maybe that was the plagues doing. His eyes were raw and bleeding, the scleras a horrible crimson colour, his skin a horrible grey, waxy and wet with sweat. Veins were sticking out of his neck and face, you could see them pulsing across his body, a lot slower than they should of been. His hair was falling over his gaunt face, unwashed and unbrushed, his unshaven jaw clenched as he took in a deep breath through his nose. He looked like he was already dead.  
"I have a *cough* -a request," he spluttered weakly, anger flaring in his glassed over red eyes, at his own weakness. No greeting, just straight to the point.  
"Anything we can do to help, Count Lucio," Julian replied quickly, probably to stop me from doing so myself. His shoulders were squared and his back was stiff and although I couldn't see his face, something about his stance told me he was up to something.  
"You haven't found a cure yet." Lucio stops to cough up a mouthful of blood into a napkin before continuing. "And I feel like I might be running out of time. We have no choice but to start using extreme measures to find a cure for this- awful disease," he looks between the two of us, looking for any sign of disagreement but our large masks conceal both our faces. And it's a good thing too, because I struggle to hide my disdain for his words.  
"And what kind of "extreme measures" do you mean?" I ask, my hands gripped firmly behind my back, the sound of the rubbery gloves almost giving away my anger.  
The Count the proceeds to explain to us in between bloody coughs, that we are to start testing cures on "the already dead". We are to do what is necessary to find out how the cure works and how to stop it in its tracks.  
"- Before it damn well kills me!" He sneers, venom in his already sickly voice.  
"Who's idea was this?" I ask quietly, trying my best not to sound as disgusted as I feel.  
"Valdemar's," He spits out blood down his chin as he speaks, but quickly wipes it away with the back of his hand.  
"I thought as much," This idea wreaks of that monster. Before I can say another word though, Julian takes a step forward, almost like he's shielding me from Lucios glare.  
"Valdemar has a point. We shall assist in anyway you need us to." He can't be serious! I glare up at the back his auburn head, my fists clenched at my side, almost lifting an arm to strike him when he speaks again, halting my train of thought.  
"However, may I make a suggestion. Experiments, while I am aware can be crucial to the process of finding a cure, are useless without research. If I may suggest, that our dear Asra here continues to stick to the library for the time being." I stare up at Julian, mouth hanging open in shock. What is he doing?  
Lucio is clearly too tired to even consider that Julian has other motives for his words, and waves his hand in agreement.  
"You have a point Jules. Magician, you can continue the research in the library, but you Doctor, must now assist Valdemar in the dungeons with whatever they need help in," He coughs another mouthful of blood into his already soaked napkin and waves us away. "Now leave, I want to sleep."  
Julian herds me out of the Counts room and closes the door quickly behind us. I turn on my heel instantly and grab Julian by his robe.  
"What in the Arcana do you think you are doing?" I growl at him. Julian holds up his hands and places one finger over the beak of his mask, signally for me to be quiet.  
"Not here!" He hisses and he grabs my elbow and marches me down the hall, both of us still wearing our robes and masks.  
Julian drags me away from Lucios room in silence, past a the dozen portraits of the Count, towards the staircase. Just before we get to the stairs he stops, looks down into the main hall and quickly opens a door behind him and throws me inside. He closes the door quietly behind him and slowly turns to face me, his mask slightly askew.  
We stand in silence for a second, the purple walls of the small room closing in around us as I glared at him.We lit by the moonlight pouring in from one large window behind us.  
"What are you playing at?" I snarl at him. "Care to explain to me what that was back there?" I rip my mask off my face, herbs and ground flowers falling out of it and covering my boots.

Julian removes his mask too and lets out a long sigh, his grey eyes glittering in the light.

"I was doing you a favour. If you had refused, Lucio would of killed you, no hesitation. At least this way, you can still be alive and help!" He doesn't make eye contact with me as his cheeks flare that shade of pink again.

"But you're going to do what he asks? You're going to experiment on the people you claim to want to save?" I snap, leaning up into his face, anger almost overwhelming me.

"So you don't have to, yes!" He shouts in my face, his shoulders squared like they were in Lucios room.  
His eyes meet mine with such a force I take a step back. Something flashes across his face but its gone too quickly for me to tell what it was. Sadness? Fear? I can never tell with him.

Suddenly he straightens himself, looks over the top of my head and closes his eyes. When he opens them again they are unyielding and dark, like a storm cloud before thunder.

"You should go home. Get some rest. Have something to eat with Persi," he says, still looking over the top of my head. I know better than to argue. I'm tired and hungry and also there's no talking to him when he's like this. 

"Fine. I will. But I'm not going to stand for this," I say shortly, dropping the mask to the ground and reaching past him for the door handle. As my fingers wrap around the cold metal, Julian puts his hand on my shoulder and I glance up at him, his eyes fixed on his own hand.

"And remind her I need a report in writing on how things are going at the clinic. Numbers. Names. Any new symptoms, that sort of thing."

"I'll give it to you tomorrow," I respond, as I pull the door open I hear the sound of something tapping on glass behind me. Julian's voice follows me through the door into the hall.  
"Don't forget your hat, it's raining out," He says softly from inside the room.  
"Don't be silly Julian it hasn't rained here in-" But as I stick my head back in the door frame I stop. Sure enough that tapping sound was the sound of rain hitting the window outside.  
"Strange. maybe it's a sign," Julian ponders, more to himself than to me I think.  
"A sign of what?"  
"With any luck? That this will all be over soon," He says hopefully, his eyes focused intently on the window, now streaming with water.


End file.
